Doctor of Education-EdD
Key Details
- Award
- Doctor of Education (EdD)
- Application Deadline
- 31 May 2024
- Start Date
- October 2024
- Duration
- 5 years (Part Time)
Project Overview
Established in 1997, the EdD is a five-year part-time programme designed to meet the needs of professionals working in areas related to education, training and development who wish to draw on their everyday practice towards gaining a doctorate. This programme recruits home and international students every two years. We are now open for applications for a start in October 2024. The applications deadline is on 31 May 2024.
We invite applications on research themes that are among the research expertise and supervisory availability within the school. We encourage prospective applicants to visit the profile of corresponding potential supervisors and signal in their application the match of their research topic with areas of our expertise. Exceptional applications on educational research outside these areas are also welcome.
If you want to know more about the programme, you are welcome to attend an Online Open Evening event which will be held on Monday 12 February 2024 at 5:00-6:30pm UTC time. Please register online, you will then be sent a link to join prior to the event.
Length of course and teaching arrangements: EdD is a part-time programme which will enable you to conduct your own research project over five years. From 2022 the EdD programme opened not only to home, but also to a small number of international students.
If you start in October 2024, you will register directly for the EdD degree, the first two years of which will be considered a probationary period. In years one and two, you will attend sessions in educational theory and research methods in the form of four weekend study blocks. You will work on two assignments (Year One) and develop your research proposal (Year Two). By the end of the second year, after the successful completion of the two assignments and the research proposal, your probation will be confirmed by a review panel composed of your supervisors and an internal assessor.
You will then progress to the research stage in Years Three, Four and Five and you will be supported in producing a series of formative assignments towards the preparation of the final thesis of up to 60,000 words.
The four weekend study blocks in the first two years offer you an opportunity to engage, together with your cohort, in advanced research training that is required before the EdD thesis submission.
In addition, you will benefit from excellent face-to-face and online training in the Social Sciences Faculty. A successful completion of the EdD also requires personal independent study time of at least 60 hours per month.
Indicative teaching schedule 2024-26
- Study Block 1 (hybrid): Sat-Sun, 5-6 October 2024
- Study Block 2 (hybrid): Sat-Sun, 1-2 March 2025
- Study Block 3 (hybrid): Sat-Sun, 4-5 October 2025
- Study Block 4 (hybrid): Sat-Sun, 6-7 June 2026
Attendance and participation in the study blocks is expected. Sessions will combine asynchronous and synchronous engagement. For students attending remotely, the appropriate technology should be in place and although all efforts will be made to accommodate time differences, it is worth noting that the synchronous online sessions might be at inconvenient times depending on your geographic time zone.
Supervision meetings, Probationary Review Meetings, and Vivas.
They are offered online or face to face depending on individuals’ circumstances.
Assessment
Year One
Critical Literature Review (3,500 words)
Comparison of Methodologies (6,500 words)
Year Two
Research Proposal (5,000 words)
Ethics Application
Year Three and Year Four
Four formative assignments including Literature Review, Methodology, Issues Emerging from Data and Results/Conclusions
Year Five
A thesis of up to 60,000 words, incorporating the four formative assignments, with an oral examination.
Candidates will normally be expected to have a relevant Master’s degree preferably with research component or other experience of research in Social Sciences. It is also expected that applicants will have experience in a relevant professional area.
If English is not your first language or you are from a country that is not on the UKVI list of English speaking countries, you may be required to provide evidence of your proficiency in the English language. Further information on English language requirements can be found on our information pages.
Information about visa requirements for non-home students can be found on our student visa types page.
Fees do not include accommodation and meals if you opt to stay on campus or locally. You will also need to provide any equipment required for virtual attendance and for your own research. This will almost certainly include audio recording equipment but you may also want to use video, photographic equipment or other digital media. You can find further details on our tuition fees page.
UEA Alumni 10% Scholarships - A scholarship of a 10% fee reduction is available to UEA Alumni looking to return for postgraduate study at UEA. Terms and conditions apply.
PGR loan for home students: For information on Postgraduate Research tuition fees see our PGR Fees and Funding page.
Applications can be made online:
Please ensure that your application is accompanied by:
- Official transcripts and certificates (in English) of your higher education qualifications.
- A Personal Statement
- A CV detailing your work experience to date.
- Two academic references.
- An official copy of your English language results (if relevant)
- A Research Proposal of around 2,000 words
The research proposal
The research proposal submitted with the application is not expected to be a perfect or finished product, as it is likely to undergo changes over the course of the first two years of study, in consultation with your supervisor. However, it has an important role to play in that it is used to judge both the quality of the proposed project as well as the fit of the topic with the research expertise and supervisory availability within the school. This may be particularly important if the course is oversubscribed.
A successful research proposal is therefore likely to:
- be of relevance to the school's research area (see Research in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning)
- have an appeal for supervisors who have interests or expertise in that area (see here for research interests of potential supervisors, as well as their research profile and publications). The application asks you to identify possible supervisor/s and this will help speed up the processing of your application
- show relevant prior experience of research or practice in the proposed topic area; and indicate why you are motivated or excited about the topic
- focus on a viable issue or set of questions that it proposes to explore
- show a sense of the contribution the research can make to the field (in terms of professional practice, theory and/or methodology) and respond questions such as: who might benefit? how might it change things? what 'new' knowledge might be gained?
- convey a good grasp of key texts or debates in the research literature in the field, and if possible, a theoretical framework for the investigation
- contain a tentative research plan outlining possible research methodology and methods that will be used to explore the topic, and also indicate a tentative type of data to be collected, the size of the data set and how it might be analysed, among others
- contain a reasonable timescale for completion (see the course structure to get a feel ofhow this might assist you)
- exhibit excellent referencing and bibliography skills
Selection to the course will be based on the proposal's quality, applicant's qualifications, interview, as well as on the availability of supervisors with appropriate expertise and interest in your area of research.
We are now receiving enquiries for the cohort starting in October 2024. The deadline for applications is 31 May 2024.
Frequently asked questions regarding Study Planner, Delivery of weekend study blocks, UEA Services available to you, Research seminars and events, Before submitting an application, and Review of applications can be accessed on the below document:
If you have any queries in relation to any aspect of the EdD or would like to discuss your application, please contact the Director of the programme, Dr Ana Inés Salvi.